Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm curious about what everyone's first rainbow boa was and what it was like for you guys. Everybody knows my story, so it's time we heard your's.

-----
Scott

Reptiles
--------
0.0.1 Colombian Rainbow Boa(formerly named Precious by the previous owner....I gotta change that...)
1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)

Other
-----
1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)

My love affair with the Brazilian rainbow boa was born in the mid 1980s when my mom introduced me to the neighborhood snake freak. He showed me a fantastic collection of colubrids and rosy boas but, evidently, was saving the best for last. I remember him sliding the plastic shoe box out of it’s compartment and there, radiating on the paper towel in the bottom of the enclosure was the most majestic little beast I had ever seen. I remember it being like that commercial for HDTV with the little girl and the elephant. As she opens up the box and the light comes streaming out. Yeah, it was like millions of tiny mirrors. At the time, they were well out of my price range. I would have to wait 5 or 6 years before owning my first pair. In 1990 it happened and I’ve been happily keeping and breeding these animals for the last 16 years. The old snake freak has moved out and has since been replaced by a newer, younger, much better looking snake freak. Thanks mom.

-----
Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

...My first Rainbow Boa was a Colombian that my brother and I got in a trade in 1968 or 69. We had been catching and breeding snakes since 1964. We were selling and trading local snakes for more exotic snakes with Art Bass at Living Wonders Serpentarium in Titusville Florida. We had many different Boas and Pythons that we got in those trades. At some point we sold the Colombian Rainbow to a friend of ours. I saw the friend's brother at a high school reunion (perhaps in 1980 or 1985) and he said his brother had kept the snake for many years. I think the first time I saw a Brazilian Rainbow Boa was at the St Louis Zoo in the mid 60s. I well remember seeing them again at the Jacksonville Zoo in the late 70s or early 80s and deciding that I had to eventually own some of them. I was in the Army flying helicopters from 1972 to 1993 and had to somewhat limit my snake keeping but did keep and breed some snakes through part of that time. In the late 80s I was trying to build up small breeding groups of Burms and Boa Constrictors. In 1989 I got sent to Panama and caught a Colombian Rainbow Boa there. I have owned and then bred Rainbow Boas straight through since that time. I had some success breeding Burms but my Boa Constrictors were mostly imports and I did not produce a live baby from them. When I started having litters of Rainbow Boas in 1993 I got rid of the Boa Constrictors and Burmese Pythons and started concentrating on Rainbow Boas and Jungle Carpet Pythons. I had good luck breeding Jungle Carpets and Diamond Jungle Crossses and Irian Jaya Carpets and then wasted a lot of time and money trying to breed Diamond Pythons. A few years ago I started buying a few more Surinam Redtails and cut back on the Pythons. I sold the last of my Jungle Carpets and Diamond Carpet crosses a few months ago. My 2.3 Surinams are now mature and have been mating the last few weeks. My collection of Rainbow Boas includes six of the Epicrates cenchria subspecies. I have produced babies from 5 different Rainbow Boa subspecies.
Jeff

>>I'm curious about what everyone's first rainbow boa was and what it was like for you guys. Everybody knows my story, so it's time we heard your's.
>>
>>
>>-----
>>Scott
>>
>>Reptiles
>>--------
>>0.0.1 Colombian Rainbow Boa(formerly named Precious by the previous owner....I gotta change that...)
>>1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
>>0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
>>1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
>>0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)
>>
>>Other
>>-----
>>1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)

2005 national zoo line female

not my prettiest snake, but i think she will make for an interesting hypo outcross some day.

I am rather new to Rainbow boas (though in February it will be my third year owning one, so not sure if that elevates me from new to moderately experienced in owning rainbows)

It all started with me learning about rainbows here in kingsnake.com and in the reptile chat rooms, increased with seeing the pictures and checking out a Columbian at a petstore...then it ended up with me buying my first Brazilian Rainbow Boa female (I liked the brazilians more than the columbians). Now I have two BRB's, a male and female. The male I bought as a 2-3 year (or older, I can't recall right now but too lazy to look it up in my records). Giving him time in quarantine and bought him a bit too late to consider breeding my girl, though I may do it anyway, just will have a late batch compared to the average breeder. She's already over 3 years old, about 6' (give or take an inch or two) and I believe when I last weighed her, about 1500g or more.

Here are my two BRB's.

The female:

And the Male.

-----
PHLdyPayne

Well for me, I saw pics of brazilian rainbow boas in a book back in about 1989. Had to have them and bought a pair about 1990 from East Bay Vivarium. Kept them for a few years until a cheapo thermostat failure caused their loss. Last cheapo thermostat I ever used. After that major setback I bought pair in early 1994 and named them Porky and Petunia. They were from 1993 so not quite a year old.

Petunia is now my oldest and largest Female.

Porky has some very unique patterning and I'm hoping it can be passed down even if not single gene related.

Then later that same year I found a group for sale and bought the lot. I picked out a few to keep and sold off the rest. Included was Lefty/M5, my first bullseye and the father of all bullseyes I have produced to date.

Took me a few years to raise them up and figure out how to breed them. Once I saw that first litter I was hooked even more.

Since then I have been saving back some special babies and brought in several unrelated animals to the point where I now have 39 BRB's from 14 different sources. Several breeding projects underway, Hypomelanistic, Anery, Bullseye, Eclipse and Blushing.

Eclipse and Blushing are two I named and have yet to prove any genetics behind them. Eclipse have little to no crescents and blushing have speckled side medalions again without normal crescents.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
12.24 BRB
11.13 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats